Catherine O’Leary (49) died in Cork this morning after almost two decades with locked-in syndrome, which meant she was unable to move or speak.
Ms O’Leary, from Carrigaline, was 32 when she suffered a stroke during surgery to remove a brain tumour in 2008.
In a post on Facebook, her family confirmed the mother of one died this morning.
“It is with great sadness that our beloved Catherine passed away peacefully this morning, surrounded by family. She will be deeply missed by all who knew and loved her,” they said.
When Ms O’Leary was first diagnosed, she spent time in a high-dependency bed at Cork University Hospital (CUH) before being flown to a rehabilitative facility in Putney in southwest London.
She initially responded well to the rehabilitation treatment at the Royal Hospital for Disabilities. However, in October 2008 she stopped breathing and lapsed into a coma.
Doctors told her family there was little hope for her.
However, she regained consciousness and was subsequently flown back to CUH. She was a patient there for a further four years.
Ms O’Leary spent a year-and-a-half as a full-time resident in Farranlea House Community Nursing Unit in Cork before being brought home to Carrigaline in September 2014.
She required 24-hour care, could communicate only by blinking and was fed through a tube.
Her father, Pat O’Leary, told RedFM’s Neil Prendeville that he and his wife Margaret always vowed their daughter would not have to live her life in pain.
“I was lucky that the palliative care came up to me and put a line in for me when she was so ill and they were telling me how to use the morphine,” he said.
“And I knew the moment she was going to be in a lot of stress, and I administered the morphine. It was like she said, ‘Thank you’.”
Ms O’Leary was surrounded by her family members when she died at 7am.
Catherine O’Leary
Today’s News in 90 seconds – 11th August 2025
Mr O’Leary said that his daughter Jackie got into bed next to Catherine this morning and stayed with her for an hour.
Her brother Shane flew in from New York last night.
She is survived by her parents, her adult son Brandon and her four siblings.
Mr O’Leary said his heart was broken for Brandon, who lives in Sydney, Australia. Brandon’s father died last December.
Mr O’Leary said that before Catherine went in for her operation years ago, she told him that if anything happened to her that she wanted a private funeral.
“She said, ‘Take me from here, get me ready and take me from the funeral home straight to the crematorium. I don’t want nobody standing over me. I don’t want (any) coffin opened’. And I promised her that. I am delighted she did say that because at least I can carry out her wishes,” he said.
“She is going to the undertakers this afternoon and they are getting her ready and then to the crematorium at 5pm on Wednesday.”
Mr O’Leary said that, initially, the family had hoped that Catherine would emerge from her locked-in state.
“When she was in London, they were telling me that it was a possibility. But then she had a lot of brain damage. The battles we went through were unreal. But I am not bitter. I thanked the HSE online now. They have been good to us. I have to thank them for that,” he said.
He also thanked Catherine’s carers, some of whom are from Brazil, for their fantastic care of his daughter.
Pat and Margaret O’Leary had adapted their home into a mini-intensive care unit – at an estimated cost of more than €100,000 – so their daughter could live at home rather than in a hospital or nursing home.
Mr O’Leary said the family had endured an emotional roller-coaster when she was finally able to move home in 2014.
“We never stopped hoping and praying,” he said.